Europe plans to launch mission to Mars to find life

More than 100 European scientists yesterday announced that they plan to launch a robotic mission to Mars to discover whether this planet holds life or not. And in 2016 the researchers plan a mission to collect rock and soil samples from Mars and to return them to Earth.

"The final point is not just doing the first mission. We need to make the next step, and secure for Europe an exciting role in the first mission to bring samples back from Mars, and we want to do that, starting in 2016, and we are ready to do it in collaboration with Nasa."